DISINFO: Poland is strengthening the border with Belarus to prevent the Poles from escaping the country
SUMMARY
Poland is strengthening the border [with Belarus] so that no Poles can escape. Warsaw will deploy an additional 1.500 border guards on the border with Belarus, expanding the electronic barrier and organising a buffer zone there.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the irregular migration issues on the EU-Belarus borders.
Poland is strengthening its border with Belarus due to escalating security concerns and hybrid threats, which include the instrumentalisation of migration and potential sabotage by Belarus and Russia.
The situation on the border was manufactured by Belarus as a response to EU sanctions imposed on Minsk for its oppressive measures against the political opposition. There is plenty of evidence that the Belarusian authorities have instigated the ongoing irregular migration flows to the EU borders via Belarus.
The deployment of more Polish soldiers on the Belarusian border is connected with the ongoing migration crisis staged by Minsk and Moscow – on 6 June 2024, a Polish soldier was murdered at the border by an irregular migrant.
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that situation on the EU-Belarusian border is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus but a hybrid attack against the whole EU. The Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy (HRVP) Josep Borrell stressed that responsibility for the migration crisis falls on the Lukashenka regime.
See our earlier articles on the Belarus migration situation here.